As the holidays approach, many of us look forward to gathering with family and friends around the dining table. This is a season built on gratitude, sharing stories and reflecting on what we cherish most. For me, no blessing is greater than the gift of a second chance at life for both myself and my son, Micah.
Just days after giving birth to my son, I found myself struggling to catch my breath. I was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy, a rare and life-threatening heart condition. Despite being treated with medications, devices and surgeries, my health declined. I spent nine long months on the transplant waiting list, depending on a mechanical pump until, one day, the call came that a donor heart was available. That call, and that generous donor’s decision, saved my life.
Months later, their decision saved my life again. I faced another battle: a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Through chemotherapy, radiation and fear, my donor’s heart kept beating strong. I am alive today because a stranger’s decision became my strength, my hope and my lifeline.
But my family’s transplant story did not end there. Years later, when Micah was only 13, he came home one day from school clutching his chest. Doctors discovered his heart was functioning at just 7% and diagnosed him with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused by a rare genetic condition called Danon disease. Suddenly, my son was facing the same uncertainty and agonizing wait for an organ that I once endured. Further genetic testing found that I also had Danon disease.
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In October 2024, our prayers were answered again when a donor’s gift gave Micah a second chance at life.
Before his surgery, Micah founded Transplant Teenz, a peer group for young people waiting for or recovering from transplants. He wants every child in a similar situation to know they’re not alone.
As Micah says, “we’ve both been given hearts, and now it’s our job to live with heart.”
Our story is one of many. And yet, at the same time, it is a story far too rare. Currently, more than 100,000 children and adults in the U.S., including 10,000 Texans, are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant, just as Micah and I did. Through the awareness efforts of organ procurement organizations and donation advocates, the number of registered donors is increasing, but it is not enough. Each day, 13 people die still waiting for the gift of life.
Just one donor can save or improve the lives of up to eight people and heal another 75 lives through tissue donation. Your “yes” can become someone’s lifeline to more Thanksgivings, birthdays, anniversaries and milestones with their loved ones.
Take it from someone who held her breath in anxious waiting and faced the possibility of experiencing no more of those milestones — your donation means the world to someone out there.
This Christmas holiday, as you gather with your loved ones, I encourage you to have an honest conversation about organ donation. If you have not made your donation decision known, now is the perfect time to talk about it and register your choice. To you, it’s a checkmark. To someone else, it’s the promise of life.
From our grateful family to yours, may your holiday season be filled with hope and heart.
Learn more at Southwest Transplant Alliance at www.organ.org and register to be an organ donor.
Brittany Clayborne is a heart transplant recipient and the mother of Micah, also a heart transplant recipient. They both live in Ennis.